In the health care industry doctors and other professionals use several different types of medical equipment on a daily basis. A lot of money goes into purchasing quality, durable medical equipment, and knowing more about these different pieces of equipment can help people feel more comfortable when they go to a hospital and are treated with this equipment. The following paragraphs describe some of the most popular types of medical equipment used in hospitals and other health care facilities, including diagnostic, therapeutic, and life support equipment.

Diagnostic equipment is used to help doctors diagnose diseases and other illnesses. Types of diagnostic equipment include ultrasounds, PET (positron emission tomography) scanners, which use a camera and tracer fluid to look at images of organs and detect things like cancer, and CT (computed tomography) scanners, which use x-rays and dye to examine internal organs. Diagnostic equipment also includes MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines, which are used to take pictures of organs and structures inside the body. MRIs are used to detect tumors, internal bleeding, infections, injury, and blood vessel diseases.

Other types of medical equipment include therapeutic equipment, which include medical lasers that are used to perform a variety of different types of surgical operations, and LASIK surgical machines. Infusion pumps are also considered a type of therapeutic equipment that infuse the circulatory system with any nutrients or medication that the patient needs.

Life support equipment is used to maintain the function of a patient’s organs and includes medical ventilators (which are used to move air in and out of the lungs of person who is unable to breathe or who is breathing insufficiently), anesthetic machines (which are used to administer anesthesia during surgeries), heart-lung machines, and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), which is a machine that removes blood from the body, adds oxygen to the blood, removes carbon dioxide, and puts the blood back in the body. Dialysis machines, which help remedy kidney failure, are another type of life support medical equipment.

Of course, these are only a few types of medical equipment found in health care facilities. But these are some of the most common types of major medical tools used to help diagnosis, restore, and maintain patients’ health. Knowing more about the different types of medical equipment that doctors use can help patients feel more comfortable and more confident when they visit a hospital or other health care facility and are treated with this equipment.